A writer's notebook:

Stephen King:

"I think a writer's notebook is the best way in the world to immortalize bad ideas. My idea about a good idea is one that sticks around and sticks around and sticks around. It's like if you were to put bread crumbs in a strainer and shake it, which is what the passage of time is for me. It's like shaking a strainer. All this stuff that's not very big and not very important just kind of dissolves and falls out. But the good stuff stays, you know, the big pieces stay."